Smoked: Punch Rare Corojo Aristocrat Anniversario

Smoked at: West Chester, Ohio

Punch Rare Corojo Aristocrat Anniversario is a pyramid/figurado with a tapered foot – a 54 gauge foot that tapers to a 40 ring gauge head. It resembles the shape of a baseball bat. Maybe that’ the sports connection that led Red Auerbach and Art Rooney to prefer the vitola. I know different sports, but sports nonetheless. It hadn’t been produced for some time so Punch decided to bring it back to the top of the order – pun intended.

The binder is Connecticut Broadleaf. The filler is a combination of Dominican, Nicaraguan and Honduran tobacco. The wrapper is a rustic smooth reddish brown Ecuador Sumatran with barely noticeable seams and veins.

One other odd feature to the stick – a nipple on the foot. I left it on and let it. In retrospect, probably a bad idea. The burn line was all over the place for the first 15 minutes. It somehow evened out on its own and remained that way for the rest of the smoke.

The tapered narrow 40-gauge cap is challenging to light and draw. Out comes the Perfect Draw. Do I dare with this narrow gauge? It works. Whew! No tears, no tobacco removed. Mission accomplished. The draw is Goldilocks “just right” for the entire smoke. With the draw and burn line in tow the smoke output is solid. The ash won’t win a beauty contest, but the grey and white held on for about an inch before flaking and falling off.

Cedar, earth, leather, well aged tobacco, dried fruit (maybe cherries – like pipe tobacco cherry), light cocoa/milk chocolate, pepper. light sweet spice, and a Three Musketeers taste – for lack of a better description. The earth, cedar, leather and aged tobacco are the dominant flavors. The pepper and spice mellow out by the second third. The retrohale is initially quite harsh. It mellows as well.

Punch Rare Corojo was at one time one of my favorite go-to cigars. Venturing into small batch boutiques took me away from this old friend. Good to be reacquainted. I can imagine the Punch Rare Corojo Aristocrat Anniversario pairing well with cognac or a port as well as single malt scotch.